Apps of the Week for January 26th: Awards Season is Here with E! Red Carpet

Check out the latest and greatest apps for Android, Windows Phone, and iPhone this week.

Android App of the Week: Minube

If you want to get away, or at least imagine what it’d be like to, Minube is the app for you. Once you create an account, you can use the app to start planning your own dream vacation – even if you don’t have the faintest idea about where you want to go.

Minube thrives on social recommendations – travelers can upload pictures and feedback from their experiences abroad. It’s very much a custom experience, so you’ll be able to trawl through user input on the obvious tourist spots as well as the hidden gems that might not have made it into the guidebooks. That spans everything from restaurants to bars to natural beauty, and it should make for some well-rounded vacation planning. The app also tends to focus on presenting pictures, so it’ll definitely get your imagination going. You can also set up your own favorites list of places, or start planning your own vacation by adding places to a separate list.

Social interaction comes by way of following – you can follow other users, and see what pictures and information they post about their travels. If you’re planning a trip with friends, you can invite them to lists that you’ve created, so you can collaborate on dreaming and/or planning.

There’s also an inspiration mode, if you’re looking to escape but are out of ideas. You can browse by distance from home, or enter in your mood or favorite color, and get recommendations straight from Minube about where you should be packing your bags for next.

iPhone App of the Week: Dash Office

With the way data plans are going now, counting kilobytes is going to become more popular than counting calories. Dash Office is a new app that promises to help with the former.

Dash Office aims to speed up your network connection while cutting down on data used, and throwing in some security measures while they’re at it. Cutting down on data used in part means preventing unnecessary app requests, and is also linked to Dash Office’s own web browser. Dash Web claims to speed up network connections by means of a “proprietary mechanism.” The app will also run your data through a VPN, in case you’re looking for some heavy-duty security, or just really want to make sure no one can track you while you’re browsing.

VPNs rarely come free, and neither does Dash Office. The app itself is free, but will be limited in use unless you make an in-app payment. $0.99 will get you 250 MB of Dash Office-accelerated data, while $9.99 will get you a full month of the service, including the VPN. $19.99 will get you three months, while $69.99 will net you a full year.

Windows Phone App of the Week: E! Red Carpet

Well, I’d say that with the Oscars coming up and the Golden Globes in the recent past, we’re in the midst of award season, but considering how many award shows we have now, I think award season pretty much lasts the whole year. Great news, if you’re interested in downloading the E! Red Carpet app.

The name probably tells you all you need to know – E! will use the app to give you a backstage look at all the major award shows, from the Oscars to the Grammys. That’ll include exclusive news, photos, videos, and interviews from the red carpet and beyond. Those photos will all be high-res, and ready for you to mercilessly pick apart every single fashion flaw that dares rear its ugly head.

All the red carpet celebrity news you can handle comes your way for free. You can grab the E! Red Carpet app now from the Windows Phone Store.